Bestselling author also searched for shipwrecks
Robert D. McFadden
Clive Cussler, the author and maritime adventurer who captivated millions with his bestselling tales of suspense and who, between books, led scores of expeditions to find historic shipwrecks and lost treasures in the ocean depths, died on Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 88.
His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for his publisher, Penguin Random House. No specific cause was given.
Mayan jungles, undersea kingdoms, ghost ships, evil forces out to destroy the world, beautiful women, heroes modeled on himself — Cussler’s vivid literary fantasies and his larger-than-life exploits swirled together for four decades, spinning off some 70 books and locating almost as many shipwrecks.
A college dropout who once pumped gas and wrote advertising copy, Cussler’s action thrillers of the James Bond-Indiana Jones kind, plus nonfiction accounts of his marine quests and a few children’s books, made him a global celebrity.
His book sales have been staggering — more than 100 million copies, with vast numbers sold in paperback at airports. Translated into 40 or so languages, his books reached The New York Times’ bestseller lists more than 20 times.
Often compared to the thrillers churned out by Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Ian Fleming, the Cussler novels featured formulaic plots, one- or two-word titles (“Cyclops,” “Dragon,” “Inca Gold,” “Poseidon’s Arrow”) and frequently a recurring hero, Dirk Pitt, an undersea explorer who cheats death and saves the world as he foils the diabolical plots of megalomaniac villains, while satisfying his taste for exotic cars and lusty women.
Readers were swept along on the page-turning tides, and after his commercial breakthrough, “Raise the Titanic!” (1976), his books were frequently on the bestseller lists for months. “Raise the Titanic!” became a 1980 film starring Richard Jordan and Jason Robards Jr. “Sahara” (1992) became a 2005 film starring Matthew McConaughey.
Cussler also connected with readers by turning his love for scuba diving into an oceanic lifestyle that paralleled and validated his superhero.
He first created the National Underwater and Marine Agency as a fictional government organization that employed his hero in the Dirk Pitt books. Then, in 1979, he founded an actual National Underwater and Marine Agency as a private nonprofit group.
With Cussler leading expeditions and joining dives, the organization eventually located some 60 wrecks. Among them were the Cunard steamship Carpathia, first to reach survivors of the lost Titanic on April 15, 1912, then itself sunk by German torpedoes off Ireland in 1918; Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s coastal steamer Lexington, which caught fire and went down in Long Island Sound in 1840; and Manassas, the Confederacy’s first Civil War ironclad, sunk in battle in the Lower Mississippi in 1862.
His first nonfiction book, “The Sea Hunters” (1996, with Craig Dirgo), was an account of his NUMA exploits, some of which were portrayed in television documentaries featuring Cussler as narrator. Valuable artifacts raised by his expeditions were given to museums or governments.
Cussler, who named his franchise hero after his son Dirk, acknowledged that Dirk Pitt’s character was his own alter ego.
Clive Eric Cussler was born in Aurora, Illinois, on July 15, 1931., the only child of Eric and Amy Hunnewell Cussler. His father was an accountant. Clive grew up in Alhambra, California, a poor student but an avid reader of adventure stories.
He attended Pasadena City College briefly, but left to join the Air Force when the Korean War began in 1950. He became a mechanic and flew supply missions in the Pacific but never saw combat. While stationed in Hawaii, he learned scuba diving and explored underwater wrecks. He mustered out as a sergeant.
In 1955, he married Barbara Knight. They had three children, Teri, Dirk and Dayna. His wife died in 2003. He later married Janet Horvath, who survives him, along with his children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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